Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/306

 NOTES ON THE MARRIAGE CUSTOMS OF THE BEDU AND FELLAHIN.^

BY MRS. H. HAMISH SPOER (A. GOODRICH-FREER), F.R.S.G.S.

{Read at Meetings April 20th, 19 10.)

I, The Bedu.

It is not surprising that the marriage customs of the Fellahin, — or agricultural population, — and still more of the Bedu, — or desert, nomadic population, — of Palestine should show traces of the remotest antiquity. On the other hand, it is also natural that in the course of ages, and by reason of change of place and the admixture of alien elements, such customs should have been subjected to many modifications, affecting different districts in various degrees, so that the invariable custom of one village or tribe may be wholly alien to the next, and even in so small a country as Pales- tine, — about the size of Wales, — it is not fair to assert or deny the existence of any usage without extensive and continuous study, opportunity for which is not always easy to obtain. We all owe a debt of gratitude to such observers as Burton, Doughty, Baldensperger, Goldzieher, Musil, and Euting. Among women, I know of none whose observations are of value except Miss Rogers, (who wrote in the middle of

^I wish to express my thanks to Musil's Arabia Fetrcea, vol. iii., and to Doughty's Travels in Arabia Deserta. I need hardly say that without the help of my husband much of the contents of this paper could not have been observed and recorded. I am also greatly indebted for practical help to Herr Elias Haddad, Teacher of the Syrisches Waisenhaus, Jerusalem.